The GeauxLSU clan will have a first ever (more/less) family reunion in June. The plan is to stay around the Mesa Verde/Durgano area. I'll drag my crew to see the Grand Canyon as my wife nor my son have ever seen it (I have twice) and just realized Monument Valley (something I've always to see) is much further south than I thought so will be an easy thing to incorporate as well. Of course the 4 corners monument. We'll do the railroad trip out of Durango as well.
Anything else a 'must see' while we're there that is easily accessible from the Durango area? Most of the time should be fairly flexible.
Thanks.

The steam ride will be a lasting memory Sir. I totally love steam trains and the narrow gauges are just GREAT.

My son is 9 years old. He'll be besides himself. Ah... what the heck, mom and dad might be too.

If you have time the drive over to Ouray is worth it. The city pool there is fed by a hotspring and is relaxing. You can rent a Jeep for the day and explore miles of off road trails that lead to abandoned mines from either Ouray or Silverton. Rent a Jeep instead of taking your own vehicle even if it is 4X4. Don't ask how I know, lets just say it would have cost less.

Monument Valley is nice as is Arches NP which is nearby. We actually enjoyed our time in Moab Utah, right outside Arches.

Yep Ouray, Silverton, Arches, Canyonlands, Moab...all good places. There are some vineyards near Grand Jct.

Mesa verde is worth a trip. I went there 20 years ago and still remember being amazed at how they built all that into the side of a cliff.

May want to take the train up and take the bus back from Silverton. My family found it more enjoyable that way. YMMV

Watch for ashes in your eyes and burning small holes in clothes if you take the open car.

Just north of Silverton on the west side of the highway - South Mineral area - drive past the camp ground into the upper basin. Before the campground - take the road on the right to the top - nice little lake and mtn vistas. Ouray - 4 x 4 to Yankee Boy Basin, do Engineer pass from Ouray back into Silverton. Go to Ridgway and head west towards Norwood & Telluride. At the top of Dallas Divide several miles out of Ridgeway - look for Last Dollar Road and drive it into Telluride. It's an easy and scenic drive. Enjoy Telluride and then go over Lizard Head pass back to the South into Mesa Verde. Lots of great scenery and off roading in the San Juans - enjoy the time there. Silver Jack Reservoir to the East of Ridgeway is another easy /scenic route and you can end of coming out east of Montrose, see the Black Canyon on your way into Montrose and then back South to Durango. I lived in Montrose years ago and spent every moment when I wasn't working prowling the mountains in the area, all the 4x4 trails, horseback, hiking etc. SW Colorado is my absolute favorite place in the US.

Geaux,

Sounds like you'll be trying to cover a lot of territory. Just remember that the lower altitude terrain, like Monument Valley, Moab, Arches NP will likely be close to 100 degrees in June. You'll have lots to do in the higher altitude areas. Our snowpack is well below normal this year and you should be able to get up high. In a normal year it might be 4th of July before you'd get over some of those 4WD passes. I'll echo 7mm08fans reco for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, it's one of my favorite places on earth, especially from the bottom looking up when the Salmon fly hatch is on.

Mesa Verde Nat Park

I took my family out there last year. Durango is a good place to travel out from for the different sights. My family took me soaring between Durango and Silverton. That was a blast! Well worth the time and money. You take the train out of Durango to get there. It was called Soaring Tree Top Adventures.

Mesa Verde National Park is a good way to spend a day too. There is a lot to see and do there. It is a pretty good distance to the ruins from the highway so give yourself plenty of time to get back in there to the ruins.

We used to spend a couple of weeks every year camping, 4 wheeling, hiking and "condo-ing" in the Durango, Silverton, Ouray and Tellruide areas, sometimes ranging over to Crested Butte, Montrose and Gunnison. It looks like BeanMan has the intel on the snowpack, which would have been a major concern of mine in June. The Million Dollar Highway between Silveron and Ouray is really pretty. We really like Ouray, and if we won the lottery (without ever having bought a ticket), we would have a place there.

Everything may seem like its close to the 4 corners area, but the distances are more than you think and mountain driving can be slow even for short hauls. Don't try to see everything. The train trip alone would be an entire day. Some 4x4 routes are a good chunk of a day. The Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde ain't exactly drive-bys. Pick out a few things and savor them. Some solitude on a hiking trail can be a lot more fun than being jammed up in traffic in Durango or a national park. You will be back, so don't try to see it all.

The Dallas Divide mentioned by 7mm08fan is a nice view from a highway, and Last Dollar Road is pretty mellow as they go if you have a decent ground clearance SUV and don't want to rent a Jeep.

If you are interested in some peak bagging, climb Lizard Head Peak near Durango. Might be tough on the youngster but it is a non-technical and very scenic mountain.

RS

While you're around the Monument valley area, check out Valley of the Gods. It's a graded gravel rd that loops around. Look for the turn off on 163. Could be worth it.

The 4 corners monument is anti-climatic. We were there a few years ago and got a couple Indian tacos from one of the vendors there and sat down to eat it. While there, an Indian kid about 4 or 5, probably one of the vendors' kids, shyly peaked around the corner at us. Took us a while, but he finally sat down beside us and we talked for about an hour. Made a good friend that day. Cute kid.

The Alpine Slide at the ski area is fun for the kids. I think mountain biking is also available.

Fly fishing the San Juan just below Navajo Dam is also a good experience - invest in a guided float trip. Mesa Verde, Arches NP, Canyonlands, etc are all worth seeing. Hot Springs in Ouray or Pagosa Springs are also fun(icky to me though). There's some waterfalls just outside Ouray(I think it's called horseshoe falls or something like that).

When in Durango, you have to do the Bar D Chuck Wagon. It's a Bar B Que dinner & dinner show. Country songs, Sons of the Pioneers type. Really a good time for all.

Stop in at the Diamond Belle for a cold one. It's an old style Saloon, go at night & there will be an old timer piano player.

DOW fish hatchery is a good visit.

Neat stuff in Silverton.
I've lived in Durango since 81----maybe we can have a cold one. Bob

Ripsnort:

You have your facts all wrong. There's nothing "nontechnical" about Lizard Head Peak. It's rated 5.8 and a very dangerous climb because the rock is unstable. One could easily get killed on that peak. It is the throat of an extinct volcanoe and very picturesque. If one were to climb all the mountains in Colorado by their easiest route, Lizard Head is the most difficult. BTW it's not near Durango. It's just south of Telluride.

Here's an article that I wrote which was published in the Trail & Timberline magazine of the Colorado Mountain Club.

KC


ELECTRIC LIZARD

Slowly the tent walls turn from dull beige to pale gold. This is the light of twilight not sunrise as we are in the shadow of the monolith camped in the grass at the bottom of the Lizard Head. Someone is moving in one of the other sleeping bags and I can hear the clink of a climbing rack being stuffed into a day pack outside. I crawl out to a pale blue sky with a few thin high clouds. This is how the day began. Veiling in peace what was to come. Dan (delete), Mike (delete) and I scrambled up the scree slope to the southwest corner of the tower.

It's rotten alright, enough to make us very careful. We can see the route, which Harvey Carter had climbed in the fifties, with several runners forming a rappel anchor at the top, just to the left of the corner. We moved about 100 feet to the east (right) where we found the route, which Albert Ellingwood and Barton Hoag had climbed sixty-eight years ago. It's amazing to think that they climbed that wearing only hob nailed boots. It looked technically more difficult but less rotten.

I lead the first pitch, 80', 5.6 and rotten. It was not the little debris, which worried me but the backpack sized rocks which moved when I put a load on them that really increased the anxiety level. This pitch ends at a belay ledge large enough for two people where I pounded in a knife blade. I belayed up Mike who lead the next pitch. This pitch could be climbed as part of the first pitch but the sharp turns increase the rope drag too much to make the crux move. The second pitch goes to the left on an obtuse dihedral, then up through an off sized crack to a traversing ledge about six inches wide. It is solid and has two hard 5.8 moves to get from the dihedral into the crack. There is a ringed pin and a lost arrow at the crux. From there the ledge goes about twenty feet left to a belay ledge with several slings and pins for an anchor. I belayed Dan to the first ledge and then Mike belayed both of us up to the next ledge, one at a time. From there we scrambled up about 160' of loose scree to the bottom of the last pitch.

There were now more clouds and we could see rain about ten miles to the south, but it looked like we had enough time to make the top before it got much worse. It was about 10:00 A.M. Dan lead the last pitch which has an awkward move (5.7) to get started onto a ramp which slopes up and to the right. At the top of this ramp there is another ramp which goes up and to the left to the last belay point where there is again several slings and pins for an anchor. The last belay point is about twenty feet from the top and when I got there I thought I heard an odd buzzing but it was only momentary so I ignored it.

The top, which is about twenty feet above the last belay point, is large enough to hold only one person at a time and because of the rotten character and steep sides of the ridge, climbers are belayed to the top from the last belay point. Since I was already on belay, I continued on the way to the top. About half way there things really started humming. The rocks were buzzing with static electricity. Just then I saw a bolt of lightning strike El Diente, four miles away. Zap! Ouch! Zap! Zap! Ouch! Ouch! Sparks were arching from the grommets of my helmet to my hair. I descended a little below the ridge and removed my helmet and rack, which was full of little sparks when it moved. I asked Mike to get the camera ready. I was going to make a dash for the summit and stand there while he took a picture of the conquering hero. Some hero. I made my dash through the buzzing rocks as my beard began to puff up. I touched the top with my hand and retreated with undignified haste.

When I got back to Dan and Mike the whole top was buzzing and my hair was standing straight out. We knew that we had to get out of there quickly and at the same time not make a deadly mistake on the rappel. One at a time we readied our gear for the rappel and descended the upper wall, all the time expecting Thor's power to strike the top. It was sprinkling as we scrambled down to the rappel anchor at the top of Harvey Carter's route. One by one we slid down the rope past two wrought iron pins, to the top of the scree cone. It was 12:30. The sky was full of dark clouds and thunder when, to add the crowning insult, like so many others before us, we couldn't pull down the ropes. We flipped to see who had to go back up to straighten out the ropes and Mike lost. We made two prussicks and up he went, with rocks raining in his wake. When he got back, for just a second, we were sure that we still couldn't get the ropes loose. But they began to move, with all of our weight on them, and down they came.

We hadn't conquered the Lizard Head, but for just a second, one of us had touched the top of the most difficult peak to climb, in Colorado.

KC,

I stand corrected. It has been 25 years since I traveled around the West climbing everything from walk-ups to 5.9s. My memory is obviously lacking. There was some peak between Durango and Silverton that I raced a local search and rescue team member to the top one afternoon (he won). The view of Purgatory ski area from the top was excellent.

Thanks for the article.

RS

http://www.nps.gov/meve/planyourvisit/visitcliffdwelling.htm

Colorado National Monument.

It's an enormous mesa with a road to the top,...nice hiking on top of it,...great views.

We went two summers ago, stayed at the Purgatory ski resort. Did the train ride for the second time, saw 2 bears, a couple elk, and some mule deer on the ride.

The Million Dollar Highway north to Ouray sure is fun, had my wife laying down in the back of the suburban while dad and her grandpa were laughing at her.

Million dollar highway.

Pics from our '10 trip

Ice Lake

Animas Forks



Clear Lake


Bullion King Lake

I'm going to Lake City first of Aug. Going to be fun.

Quite a few dude ranches in that area. Take horses up into some of the high meadows on an all day ride. Did that near Mancos when I was younger and it was memorable.

That's what we did on the advise of some seasoned riders, and we were happy with the decission.

Bristoe, I think you've confused Grand Mesa with Colorado National Monument, I live on the slopes of Grand Mesa and have an excellent view of CNM, but, it's not a mesa. I wouldn't recomend either over the Durango area for a visitor.

Lived in Sliverton 25 years ago when working at the mine there.
Take the train up and bus back. Dont get an open car. Pay the extra for a closed coach. Make train reservations early, if you can.

RipSnort:

Wilson Peak, Mount Wilson, and El Diente Peak are fourteeners located between Durango and Silverton. Most people camp in the gorgeous alpine basins above timberline. Wilson Peak is accessed via Silver Pick Basin and a lot of people camp at an obvious old mine building. Mount Wilson and El Diente Peak are accessed via the upper Dolores River Basin and Navajo Lake is a good place to camp. They are all beautiful and you can see some ski runs from the top of all of them. None of them are truely technical although there is some exposure on El Diente, which you could probably get from the Dunton Meadows Road (USFS road 535) in one day if you were in great shape.

KC

Yep, yep. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is a "must do" if you go to Durango.

KC

And dont be a flatlander....dont ride the brakes on downhill grades, keep it geared down and dont get scared and think that you are gonna drive off the edge of the highway and down a cliff by riding the center line, you wont.

Thanks for the tips guys. I should have mentioned in the OP that we'll definitely be doing Mesa/Verde and we'll be doing the one way trip on the train. But is it better to ride UP on the train or BACK on the train or does it even matter? (We'll be sharing tickets). Thanks for the closed car suggestion!
Age ranges in the group will be from infants to 70 years old and everything in between so the activity level will probably trend toward 'less adventure' than more I'd imagine to try and incorporate as many as possible. No cliff climbing for sure.
Most won't be into it but I don't care I'd like to give it a whilrl, any good places to get into some fish? Again there may be kids involved so simple and quantity would be nice? We'll have to rent everything obviously so another consideration.
Thanks again.

And oh yeah, thanks for the Alpine Slide suggestion, I'm sure the kids (and those at heart) will like that.

Telluride has the condos and restaurants, a decent playground for the young ones, and nice views from town, although you can run into some snooty, liberal people. You can walk to trails from downtown (which can get crowded during peak times) and drive a short distance to get more breathing room. Stay in town, not the Mountain Village.

We'll be staying at a large ranch out of any town.

All good info. The confusion about Co. Nat. Monument still needs clearing up, though- it's the rock formation area that forms the south ridge of the Grand Valley- drive up through it either from Grand Junction or Fruita. Grand Mesa- world's largest flattop mountain- is to the East. Both are considerable distance from
4 Corners area.

The embers from the train are true, but they didn't bother me. First time I rode the train was early April, we got an inside car, but halfway through we put on the coats and went outside and stayed there (train was far from full). In my opinion you can see a lot better on the open cars, and a few embers never hurt anyways.

The Colorado National Monument is pretty, but if it's rock formations you wish to see, then Arches National Park near Moab beats the pants off of Colorado National Monument. I'd love to direct you to the Grand Valley (Grand Junction area where I live) but, there are better places for you to see on this trip.

We are an hour or two from the area you are talking about but if you pass thru Gunnison, I can take you fishing or out on the raft or to the shooting range...

Of course if our schedules work out.

Before moving from Denver to Houston in 2010 I did a road trip with the wife and 9mo kid to the 4 corners area.
We hit the Garden of the Gods in Co Springs, the Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon and Arches National Park. Both camped and stayed in motels.
The poor little guy spent hours in the car seat and then in the trekking backpack. Long drives to get to those places, but it was totally worth it and he enjoyed it a bunch. My daughter wouldn't have been as keen to remain in the car seat
There is a train museum in Durango and of course amazing train rides.
I realize some of the places I mentioned are far out from your basecamp, but to us it was the only time to get to see them until who knows when. We did take a heli flight over the grand Canyon which was even more impressive from the air than at eye level.

I rolled into Durango in '95. It was a very nice, but Yuppoe town. I just ETS'd from the 82nd and was obviously a veteran. The town seemed full of New Yorkers (pushy rude self absorbed city types; like home only different). I tried to get a cup of coffee and was pointedly refused service/ignored for twenty minutes. i know it was twenty because I really needed that cup of coffee for being 14 hours on the road and still had more to go that day. Well the turds in the coffee shop pretended I wasn't there until the male finally served me. I remembered he huffed and rolled his eyes like my ex-wife, only she was beautiful. So I was pretty butt-hurt and rolled into Cortez. Cortez was a breath of hope and fresh air. Cortez was America. Durango was LA, SF and NY. Good luck. I'll never go through Durango again.

Not smart enough to post a link, but google Bishops' Castle. It's not real close, but worth the drive.

Bishop's Castle is a long way from Durango, an eight-hour drive.

Previous respondents have mentioned Colorado National Monument and some have suggested that it's just so-so. You know if you want to see some pretty rock formations you could drive the Dolores River canyon from Uruvan to Gateway. It's a prettier drive and it's free. Both are a couple of hours from Durango, so they would not be on the top of my list for a vacation destination if my base was in Durango.

KC

Thanks for the correction, KC, I got this thread mixed up with the Colo Springs post.